


The Forever Line

by debwalsh



Category: Black Panther (2018), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fandom Trumps Hate, Hydra (Marvel), Immortals, M/M, Terrigen Crystals (Marvel), Terrigenesis (Marvel), Wakanda (Marvel), Wakandan Technology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:54:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 9,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23314972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/debwalsh/pseuds/debwalsh
Summary: Steve is an immortal who lost his soulmate in a great battle millennia ago.   He doesn’t believe his other half is dead, nor has he left the planet.  But he’s been missing since the day of that battle, and no amount of searching has revealed any clues. The centuries weigh heavily on his soul, yet still he keeps his promise as the White Guardian of Wakanda.  And still he searches.But Wakanda is a power in its own right.  And a certain precocious genius Princess might just have found a way to locate the missing White Wolf, and bring that battle to a final close.My Fandom Trumps Hate 2020 story for Kuja!
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, Sam Wilson/T’Challa, Steve Rogers & Sam Wilson
Comments: 22
Kudos: 80
Collections: Fandom Trumps Hate 2020





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kuja](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kuja/gifts).



> The prompts included lots of lovely tropes I’m going to try to fit in if I can. But the primary one was this:
> 
> Bucky and Steve as established soulmates like you said, and when Bucky disappears during a conflict/war Steve finds himself years later drawn to an automaton/statue (in a museum or archeological dig) made of metal/stone that has Bucky’s face but is perhaps inhuman in general appearance (could be potential for angel, demon, creatures etc, but the soulmate thing makes Steve still certain it’s Bucky) Bucky wakes up, they have a little fight in the initial confusion and Steve subdues him, and takes him in for recovery as he has amnesia. 
> 
> So, yeah. Challenge accepted!

Steve fingered the fabric and nodded.“Yes, that will do,” he approved, nudging the bolt toward the tailor who smiled his own approval before gathering up the fabric to take it out of Steve’s office.

“Another suit?” Sam, his assistant, asked from the doorway.“Like you don’t have enough of them?”

“None fit for royalty, actually.I’ve been invited to attend an exhibit at the British Museum with Queen Elizabeth in attendance.”

“Oooh, fancy.Didn’t you also attend her coronation?”

Steve shrugged, a sly grin tugging at the corner of his mouth.“Different century, different identity, different dress code.Back then, I was a member of the House of Lords, as well as retired Army after the war.There was a uniform to be worn, lots of medals, lots of protocol,” he shook his head fondly.

“Did you have one of those big-ass mustache things?And a plumed hat?”

“That’s Navy you’re thinking.If you’re really curious, you can take a look at the television coverage - one of the cameramen thought I was pretty, so he found a number of excuses to get me in frame.”

“The fact you were a bona fide war hero had nothing to do with it, I’m sure.”

“Well, times change,” Steve replied wearily.

“Yeah.I’m having a hard time imagining you with a British accent.”

“I can do many accents.Speak many languages.Some of them you might even have heard of.”

“Yeah, yeah.Show off.Of course you can learn a kazillion languages when you’re umptiump thousand years old.”

“You say it like it’s a good thing.”

“Isn’t it?”

“I thought it might be.A long time ago.But it gets lonely.There aren’t any more like me.None left on this planet, anyway.”

“Now, I know you don’t believe that.”

“When I’m down, I do.It’s been over two thousand years, Sam.Without a single trace.Even for someone as long-lived as I am, that’s a long time to hold out hope without reason.Maybe it is time to give up the search.”

“Maybe we need to rethink the search parameters.T’Challa and Shuri -“

“You miss them, I get it.Maybe after this opening, we can go back.I don’t need to be in London.I can be anywhere.I shouldn’t keep you from your family.And you know I love Wakanda.”

“What I was going to say, before some self-involved white boy interrupted me, is that Shuri’s been working on some tech to probe deeper under the surface.Possibly down to the core.And T’Challa wants you to work with her to see if she can calibrate it for your kind.”

“Sorry.That sounds interesting.We’ll take a trip back.You should spend some time with your husband. I’ll have to pick an appropriate gift for Shuri.”

“She wants a music festival.Think you can organize one for her?”

“Inside Wakanda?Or nearby?Are we revealing, or simulcasting?”

“Nakia has T’s ear.She’s advocating revealing, he’s starting to lean that way.What better way to introduce Wakanda to the world but through a world-class music festival.Think Live Aid times 10, huh?” 

“Wouldn’t that create a nightmare for the General?I mean, an influx of foreigners -“

“Nah.Okoye’s got all she needs between Shuri’s tech and the Doras.I’d bet Shuri’d recalibrate the barrier to keep out the riffraff.Broadcast the whole thing on Wakanda’s satellites - be a helluva show.”

“So you seriously want me to plan a global music festival as thank you to Shuri for T’Challa letting you travel the world with me?”

“There’s no letting here, Steve.I make my own choices.You’ve been a good friend to Wakanda for centuries - millennia.It’s considered a great honor to accompany the White Guardian on his travels.”

“You’re not Wakandan by birth.I know you met T’Challa at college.In the States.And enough of the old jokes.”

“Says the guy who’s what - twenty thousand years old?”

“Sixteen.Not all of them spent on Earth, though.”

“Yeah, like that’s not intriguing as hell.And this is why your traveling companion is a much sought after gig.I am the envy of all Wakandans, dude.I’m nearly as famous as T, and I don’t have to wear a crown.”

Steve snorted a laugh.“And yet you’re eligible for one as the royal consort.”Then Steve grew serious again, and asked, “Would all of Wakanda be able to keep my secret if the world were watching?”

“You know better than to ask that.Of course they would.The White Guardian serves the Black Panther, and both serve Wakanda.The way it’s always been.”

“Believe it or not, I can remember a time before the meteorite, before the heart-shaped herb.Before the Black Panther.And it’s not just the White Guardian who serves the Black Panther.You forget the White Wolf.”

“Which brings me back to Shuri’s tech.You’re so sure he’s still out there -“

“I never felt him leave.He couldn’t die without me knowing it.Feeling it.We’re bound together, beyond the flesh.”

“Right.So he’s out there somewhere, as immortal as you are.Shuri says you live at a slightly different vibration from the world around you - probably that not of this Earth vibe - and she can tune for it.”

“Tune for it.”

“Yeah, like finding the signal in a mass of noise. She’s been working on it for a while.Now she says she’s ready for a real world trial.And she wants you there for it.”

Steve sat back, his fingers running along his jaw thoughtfully.“Her ingenuity never ceases to amaze me.Over ten thousand years on this planet, that’s saying a lot.Not even my people had been able to do that.”

“Well, she’s looking for something out of the ordinary.An anomaly.And just who are your people, anyway?”

“Ah-ah-ah!You know I’m not telling.Even the White Guardian gets to keep some secrets.”

“Yeah, you keep telling yourself that.Y’know what, I’ll bet you.”

“Bet me?”

“Bet you.We find your soulmate, we bring in your boy - and you tell me the truth of where you come from.”

“I’ve never told anyone that before, Sam.”

“So, you’re not allowed?”

“It’s not that.It’s that ... you probably won’t believe me.”

“I believe you’re 16 thousand years old.I believe you have a soulmate you misplaced two thousand years ago during a battle with some creepy ancient cult thing.I believe you saw the meteorite fall that gave Wakanda vibranium.i also believe that you once toured with The Rolling Stones and the Beatles.You think you can stretch my credulity further?”

“You’ve seen the concert footage.You can’t deny my claim to rock and roll.”

“And you can’t deny your dubious claim to white spandex, six inch platform heels, and glitter face paint.You shoulda got out before glam rock.I accept all that weird shit about you.And I don’t have the benefit of growing up with your legends in Wakanda, either, remember?So yeah.We find your fella, you tell me the truth.”

A slow wistful smile spread across Steve’s face then.It would be worth it if they actually did find Bucky after all these centuries.And it would be nice to have someone else know his story, even if they’d only be around a short while in the grand scheme of his vastly extended life.

“Deal,” he said with a nod.“If we find him.If I can bring him home.”

&&&

The British Museum gig went well, lots of press in attendance as the Queen made her way to the exhibit, made a little speech about preserving the past to inform the future, cut the ribbon, and then allowed herself to be greeted by the carefully curated selection of dignitaries on display.When it was Steve’s turn, she paused, looking at him a little more critically than the others arrayed before and after.“I feel we must know each other, but perhaps it was a relative.You have such kind eyes,” she told him as he bent over her hand, shushing with a wave of the hand behind his back the snort that Sam barely contained behind him.He introduced Sam with a nudge, and moved on, wondering, not for the first time, if he had somehow overstayed his welcome in this world.Wondering if at last, technology and lifespan would force him at last into the shadows.

He would miss the hustle and bustle of the human world, if that were the case.He’d already stepped back from direct participation in military conflict at T’Challa’s request, and the days already sat heavy on him without a war to fight, a cause to champion.Instead, he dedicated the portion of his fortune currently in use to combat climate change, human trafficking, hate in all its forms.It was all worthy and needed, but none of those battles were ones he could fight directly, personally, with his fists and his body.

His centuries and millennia of life were starting to weigh him down.The last two thousand years had been full of busy work, passing friendships, and moments of mourning.But without his other half, they had been heartbreakingly empty of true and lasting joy.

He hoped that the child genius of Wakanda had in fact discovered something that might help him end his lonely existence.If not one way, then perhaps another.

It was in a contemplative mood that he boarded the decloaked Wakandan aircraft sitting on his British country estate’s lawn, smiling as Sam greeted Ondine, the Dora pilot who’d come to fetch them home.With an imperious nod to them both, she took her place at the controls, and the ship recloaked and lifted into the sky, invisible to the tracking systems of the world.It wouldn’t do to be detected, then disappear just outside the barrier to Wakanda.Instead, they would fly home leaving no trail whatsoever, keeping the ancient pact yet another day.

“I wonder how the world will react to the sheer superiority of Wakandan tech,” he mused quietly.

Sam sighed.“Some won’t believe it possible of an African nation.Others will want it for themselves.It’s one of the things that needs to be worked out before the country can open to the world.So much of our tech revolves around vibranium, but that’s the one thing I don’t think T should ever release.There’s too much potential for abuse.”

Steve nodded.While vibranium provided so many possibilities, among them were its destructive capability.Unleashing it on the world at this juncture could usher in a new era of violence to the world.“So what’s the plan?”

“Shuri’s got a whole division working on figuring out how to replicate a lot of Wakandan tech, without vibranium.”

“Is that even possible?”

“The General says the response from her majesty is long and laced with many western swear words.”

“Hmm,” Steve chuckled.“So I guess I’m not going to be staging that music festival just yet.”

“You may have to consider a different venue.Don’t you own a couple of islands somewhere?”

Steve choked on his laugh.“Yeah.Actually, there’s a really nice one in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Greece.That might be a nice place to host the performances.I wouldn’t want to flood it with tourists, though.It would ruin the island’s eco-system if too many people descended on it all at once.”

“Yeah, that would not go down well with my sister-in-law.Maybe Live Aid is really the model.That simulcast at a time when the technology was groundbreaking.”

“And we wouldn’t need to ask for any revenues - I could fund the whole thing.So we could hire the bands, transmit the concert for free.Just have Shuri and her friends - and anyone else from Wakanda who wants to come - in attendance.Yeah, that could work.A free concert for the planet.A fundraiser to combat climate change ... Hmm.I’ll have to put my assistant on it right away.”

“No you don’t.As your assistant, I am reminding you that the festival is your gift to Shuri.Not mine.Because it will be I who won the damned bet.”

Steve chuckled again, then turned sober.“Let’s hope we have reason to celebrate.It would certainly be nice to finally know for sure,” he added softly to himself.

&&&


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which more is learned ...

Their arrival in Birnin Zana was unremarkable. It was a trip they often took, but it had been a while since Sam or Steve had been home.Despite his many, many years, Steve always felt a little thrill of excitement as the barrier dissolved to reveal the wonders of Wakandan technology.

He remembered a time when the lands that became Wakanda had been populated by disparate tribes, each living off the land and battling for resources.The arrival of the meteor 10 thousand years ago had changed the trajectory of Wakandan development.Unifying under the Black Panther, the peoples of Wakanda had learned not only to live off the land, but to harness its power and live in harmony with it, enhanced by the vibranium.The lessons the Wakandans had mastered generations ago would, he believed, someday save the entire planet.He was glad to know that T’Challa leaned ever nearer to revealing the technological prowess of the ancient nation.The world was fast approaching the tipping point where they wouldn’t survive without intervention.

As they touched down on the royal landing pad, Steve knew that Shuri had the capability to lead the world’s nations into a new age of technology. 

A music festival was the least he could offer in exchange for salvation for an entire planet.

He would never tell her that, of course.She was already too full of herself, if rightly so.Instead, he folded her into an affectionate hug, and scrubbed his knuckles against the elaborate braids sprouting from the crown of her head.

“Guardian!You go too far!”

“Hah!” he barked, chuckling as he dropped his arms to snag her around the waist and twirl with her, her legs kicking as she shrieked with laughter.

Queen Ramonda watched their rough-housing with a fond smile even as she reached out her hand toward Sam, who took it and drew her fingers to his lips in a soft kiss.

“My Queen.Ignore him.He was raised by wolves,” Sam said with a side-eye toward Steve and Shuri.

“With wolves,” Steve corrected as Shuri twisted in his grip to get him into a headlock.“How many times, Sam -“

“Whatever.There’s wolves involved.”

Shuri chose that moment to release Steve so that he overbalanced and went tumbling across the roof.“It is the Wolf we search for!” she exclaimed excitedly as she rolled up onto her hands and knees.“Guardian, we can at last find your soulmate,” she added, rising to her feet as she stuck out her hand to Steve.

He grasped it, feeling a glimmer, a faint ember, of hope, before he shoved it down and locked it away again.He moved to tug her toward him, and then grinned, a well-worn game.They let each other’s hands go, and Steve levered himself to his feet easily, quickly dusting himself off to bow before the Queen.

“Your majesty,” he murmured, brushing his lips over Queen Ramonda’s knuckles just before she harrumphed and rapped those knuckles against his temple.

“You are ever the ruffian, Guardian.No wonder my daughter is such a hellcat.”

“That, Mother, is no fault of the White Guardian.That would be Shuri, through and through,” chuckled Crown Prince T’Challa as he sauntered out onto the roof.

“T!” Sam breathed, moving smoothly into an embrace with his husband.“By Bast, I missed you.”

T’Challa drew Sam into a passionate kiss.That went on.For quite a while.And with tongue.While everyone stood around first trying to ignore them, and then ended up staring unashamedly.

“Wolves, indeed,” muttered the Queen.“Well, now you’re all here, we might as well get it over with.Shuri, if you please?”

“About time, Mother.You, Brother!Get your tongue out of your husband’s throat!There’s work to be done!”

&&&

Shuri flicked her fingers through the vapor display, calibrating and muttering as she went.On a glowing platform, Steve stood, a bemused smile on his face, as little drones fluttered around him.

“I knew it,” she murmured to herself.

“Of course you did,” her brother chuckled softly.

“No, you idiot.I really did.Steve really does exist at a different frequency from the rest of us - very distinctive.He really is from another world.”

“That’s just a legend,” Steve countered with a fond smile.

“That’s fact.I just proved it.Everything and everyone I’ve measured is within a narrow range. Including my brother,” she added impishly.“Even the mutants I’ve been able to identify.In every case, the frequency falls within that narrow band.Even the vibranium that fell from the sky ten thousand years ago.But not you.So when I calibrate the device to scan only frequencies outside that narrow band, we should be able to find your Bucky.”

Steve stood on the platform still, afraid to breathe, afraid that anything he might do would wake him from this dream.

To think that this effervescent young woman might hold the key to locating his other half ... it was too much to hope.

“So when do we start?” Steve asked instead.

Shuri started to laugh like he’d told her the best joke ever.Which.Well, humor is not something he’d ever been known for, except for a brief period when he’d been a certain Bard’s muse once upon a Stratford on Avon.

Sam and T’Challa just sort of ignored her while she whooped it up, so it fell to Steve to be the idiot in the room and ask, “What’s so funny?”

“You, Guardian!When do we start?Seriously?I’ve already scanned the planet and collected the data.We only need to feed the parameters into the system, and,” she let her fingers dance through the air, bringing up an incredible image of Earth suspended a few feet away from him, with millions of golden streaks lancing through the outer crust into the core itself, until the entire globe was a network of the shimmering lines.Then she clapped her hands together, and the virtual world collapsed in on itself, forming a solidly gold sphere that abruptly fragmented and exploded outward when she flung her arms wide.“Now ... watch,” she ordered, her voice suddenly hushed as she set the globe spinning on its axis, the golden lines absorbed into the darkness that rose up from the core of sphere.And then the next wave formed, tiny pinpricks of a duller gold forming in isolated patches, resolving across the face of the world in waves.

Shuri walked over then, peering at the odd simulacrum curiously.

“What is it?”

She lifted a finger and poked at the virtual surface in a cluster of dull gold, and watched as the entire construct rippled and shuddered from the interference, the dots still forming, singly and in clusters.

“You’re not alone,” she said in wonder.

“Once upon a time ... no.”

“There were more of you?” she asked then, lifting her eyes away from the virtual map she’d created.

“Some.There were also others.Not quite the same.”

“Your cult thing.They weren’t of this world?”

“Some.Their followers were.But the core army ... no.”

“And your followers?”

“We didn’t want to pull humans into our fight.That might have been a tactical error, but all they would have been was cannon fodder.It wasn’t their fight to die in.”

“Your weapons weren’t so archaic as cannons.”

“Our weapons were barely physical at all.”

She smiled slyly at him, and he could tell she was searching for a way to winkle more information out of him.The Wakandans had always been respectful of his secrets, but Shuri was no average Wakandan.Hell, she was no average human, and her curiosity was boundless.

So it was no surprise to watch that smile burgeon across her face as she whispered, “Show me.”

T’Challa cleared his throat then and strode over to tower over her.“Sister, you know the pact.The secrets of the White Guardian are just that - secrets.”

“What would it take for you to tell me?” Shuri asked, undeterred, ignoring the bluster her brother brought to bear.“To show me your true power?”

Steve glanced over her shoulder to Sam, who just shook his head.

“Some stories are not mine to tell, Princess.”

“Not even a hint?” she pressed, her youthful voice suddenly low and dangerous.Covetous.

What would the greatest mind of her time do if she knew the truth?

“The pact, Sister,” T’Challa repeated, and there was warning in his voice.

“I will know,” she promised quietly.

“You can hope,” he replied. “Now.Show me your wonders.”

The almost avaricious glint in her eyes faded immediately, replaced by her childlike glee over showing off one of her toys.She danced around the globe, lifted her hand and set it spinning.The dull gold was like patches of reflected light, sparse and unresolved, but as Wakanda rotated into view, she held up her hand to still the sphere, her eyes wide and her mouth falling open.

Sam took a shuffling step forward, muttering, “What the hell?”

“Bast!” T’Challa swore softly.

Shuri was silent as she stared at the boundary of Wakanda, shown clearly on the globe.Not in lines, but in a nimbus of dull gold that coalesced into a solid band of color that abutted the entire perimeter of the dome, with one bright gold dot pulsing among its dull neighbors.

“What the hell, indeed,” Shuri repeated, glancing at Steve with a frown.“But perhaps we have located the White Wolf,” she added, touching her finger to the glowing pinpoint, right on the edge of Wakanda’s southerly boundary.“It would appear he’s been right under our noses all along.”

Steve stared, not in wonder, but in horror.For Bucky to be so close and yet inaccessible for so long ... it couldn’t mean anything good.

&&&


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which secrets are revealed ...

“You doing all right?” Sam asked gently, joining Steve on the balcony overlooking the heart of Birnin Zima.Inside, Shuri was a perpetual motion machine, orchestrating a complex dance of scans, probes, and data collection equipment, all while standing still in the middle of an array of data displays while she calmly manipulated the Kimoyo beads on her bracelet.

Steve ... wasn’t so calm, and his constant queries and worries had earned him banishment from her presence, at least until she’d fine tuned the search to a point where she was satisfied.

Bucky was nearby.Directly under their normal approach to the Wakandan security bubble, if he was reading the displays correctly.

His soul mate was right there, practically beneath his feet.

He wanted to race there, burrow through the earth with his bare hands, pull him into his arms, and never, ever let him go.

Shuri pointed out - reasonably, he knew - that such an action could expose Wakanda to something foreign and dangerous. Because why else would Steve’s ancient soul mate have remained so close and yet so inaccessible if there weren’t something holding him back? And if Bucky were as powerful as Steve himself, that something had to be equally powerful, if not more so.

Shuri refused to allow Steve to unleash such power on the world, let alone within the Wakanda security bubble.

Logically, he understood.

But he heart was not so logical, not even after so many centuries that should have granted him wisdom.

Because it was Bucky.

Steve was so desperate, he’d even considered bargaining with Shuri, promising her all his secrets, if she’d just hurry the fuck up.

And that’s when he knew, understood, just how compromised he was.

She saw it, too.And in a rare flash of maturity, she’d banned him from her lab.She hadn’t sent him far - he could be within earshot, he could observe from the expansive balcony.

But he couldn’t be near her.Not when the temptation was so great for them both.

So Steve retired to the balcony, no great hardship considering its comfort, its ready access to food and drink - even entertainment if he wanted it.But it wasn’t near where Shuri was searching for a way to reach Bucky.And in that, it was painful, horrible, unbearable.

Sam was only one in a series of friends who’d drifted out to check on him.He was, perhaps, the one who understood him best, though.

So he answered as honestly as he could. 

“No.”

“Didn’t think so.She’s doing her best, and you know that’s damn fine.”

“No one could do better.I know.I know.But it’s ...”

“Him.I know.I can’t even imagine how you must feel right now, to know that he’s so close -“

“He’s been so close.Has he been there all this time?Is he,” Steve choked back a sob, grit his teeth, and forged on, “dead?Alive?How could he simply be there for two thousand years?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out.Or rather, Shuri is.She told me you can pull up the feed on your Kimoyos.She’s pretty much done mapping the perimeter.Looks like a honeycomb of chambers circling the barrier.Like it’s what kept them from getting in. Like it was an invasion force of some kind.”

“Hydra.”

“More than likely.Especially with that other out-of-synch vibration.Only one like you, but,” Sam took a deep breath, rotated his neck for a second before continuing, “thousands of the others.If the readings are correct, there are thousands of them surrounding Wakanda.”

“If it is Hydra, then the barrier isn’t the only thing holding them back.That wasn’t there two thousand years ago.Not like it is today, at least.”

“Hydra never entered Wakanda,” Sam said gently.

“No.It gave us an edge in the war, a place where we could rest and recoup.I was organizing transport for equipment and materiel to replenish hot zones so we could beat them back when Buck took a team to try to infiltrate their command center.That was nowhere near Wakanda.It wasn’t even on the African continent.It was up in Scandinavia.Near the Asgardian treasure,” Steve mused quietly.

“The what now?”

Oh.He’d never told anyone about the Asgardians.He’d let the legends grow among the Norsemen, secure in the idea that they would be sufficient to protect the trove left behind by the Asgardians.Even though Hydra had clustered around that center of power, they’d never gotten close to discovering Odin’s sanctuary.

“You telling me the Norse gods are real?”

Steve nodded slowly.“Powerful, long-lived.I can see why some saw them as gods.”

“Long-lived as you?”

“Perhaps.Perhaps longer.I haven’t spoken to any of them in a long while.I don’t know if any of them still walk the earth.”

“If you can give Shuri some idea of what to look for, she just might be able to find them for you.”

“If they’re still here, they’ve chosen anonymity.I don’t need to intrude on that.”

“You’re sure none of them would pose a danger?”

“If they were going to be problem, I think they would’ve by now.They took a wait and see attitude during the war with Hydra, but only because they didn’t want to risk Hydra gaining access to any of their technology.They provided support in other ways - ways that helped us win the war.”

“Did you?”

“Did I what?”

“Did you win.”Sam brought up the map of dull gold ringing the perimeter of Wakanda from his Kimoyo beads.“Did you win, or is the war going to start again because you can’t resist the lure of your soul mate?”

Steve realized with dawning horror that Sam could be right.His need for Bucky could be exactly what Hydra had banked on all those centuries ago.

“Shit.Do you want to be the one to tell Shuri she’s wise beyond her years?”

“Oh, hell no.Nobody’s telling that girl anything of the kind.There won’t be room enough for anyone else with her ego if you admit that to her.”

“Too late!” the teen in question call from the lab.“For that, the Guardian may re-enter, so long as he does not annoy me again!”

“Y’had to say it, didn’t you.She’s gonna be unstoppable now.”

“Got news for you Sam - she always was.”

&&&

“I’ve programmed these nanites to act as probes - much like we use them for mapping new vibranium veins.Since we don’t know what’s in these chambers, we need to take care that nothing escapes them.And we don’t fundamentally change the environment, either.We don’t know what we might awaken.”

The group was clustered around an area Shuri had set aside for presentations.She sat in a comfortable chair that adjusted - rose, fell, banked left, right, or dipped forward, according to her mental commands, and let her fingers tease out complex designs in the air as she launched a squadron of the tiny probes.

“We can get atmospheric samples, visual data, sound, full spectrum analysis - we can even enter the blood stream of any organic entities inside the chambers and take samples, vitals, the whole what is it the Americans say?Eight yards?”

Sam glanced at her with a challenging and arched eyebrow.She grinned, and elaborated, “I know, I know.Nine yards. American football.So simple.These same nanites are used for diagnostic and treatment purposes.Now, let us see what is to be seen,” she murmured, and the screen before them was full of visuals, readouts, and data streams from numerous drones being deployed around the perimeter of Wakanda.

Another screen showed the drone progress, fanning out around the whole of the perimeter, drones burrowing down and then moving out toward the chambers ringing the nations of Wakanda, and the lands of the Jabari.

“They didn’t encroach on the Jabari,” Steve mused, watching the progress in real-time on the vapor monitor.

“No.I suspect because of the concentration of vibranium in the soil and atmosphere.I mean, the barrier extends its protection to the Jabari because of ancient accords, and now of course, we are more allies than anything.But two thousand years ago, the vibranium mountain had already leached into the soil and water in all the lands of Wakanda, Jabari included.”

“The edge is so precise, though.The incursion stops at the very specific edge of Wakandan lands,” Steve noted, his finger hovering over the dull gold glow.

“The barrier was very rudimentary at that time. Barely more than a wall made of energy, an enclosure.But it was there.Perhaps an interaction of the enclosure’s energy and the vibranium in the ground created a natural obstacle that Hydra could not pass?”

“Maybe.When this is done, you may want to do some testing on soil inside the barrier, at the edge, and outside.You may have fundamentally altered the makeup of the soil.”

“Such a troublemaker,” T’Challa chuckled.

“It was our great-great-great ad nauseum baba who first erected the earliest barrier. Blame it on him.Ah, we’re getting close.”

Steve found himself holding his breath as the pinpoints that represented drones approached the chamber where they thought Bucky waited.

And then the first of the drones entered the chamber.More swarmed in, and Shuri adjusted the display so they could view the interior as a 3D model.Dull gold shimmered in most of the figures, vaguely humanoid but misshapen and bent.All seemed to have abnormally wide and muscular shoulders, thick arms that ended in large taloned hands.Something that looked like horns protruding from their wide-browned heads.Something that might be stunted wings drawn in at their backs. 

“Like gargoyles,” Shuri said softly.

Steve let out his breath on a sigh.“Hydra had a weapon.In modern parlance, a biological weapon.It used Kree terrigen, combined with radioactive ore found in the northlands.”

“Asgardian?” Sam asked sharply.

Steve shook his head.“No.This was, I think, Terran in origin.Earthly.Mixed with terrigen crystals, it changed the followers of Hydra.Made them more powerful, less human.Bloodthirsty.Easy to anger.They followed the Hydra elite with a religious fervor.And when Hydra ran low on followers, they’d use the infected terrigen to make more.It’s one of the many reasons we had to stop them.Why we couldn’t let them combine it with Asgardian tech.If they’d gotten their hands on any of it, or, gods help us, the Tesseract itself, there would have been no stopping them.Not on this world, or any other they set their sights on.”

“Terrigen is mutagenic,” Shuri said flatly.

Steve nodded.

“And these creatures were once human,” she mused as the figures further resolved themselves through scanning by the nanite drones.They could see the rictus grimaces on some of the faces, horrible things drawn back over massive canines, others with distended maws that barely resembled anything of this earth.

Steve nodded again.

“Then we must seal these chambers forever, so the contagion doesn’t spread.”

Steve wheeled on her. “Not before we -“

“We may have no choice, Steve.If the mutagen is still active, even in a few cells, it could cause untold damage if it gets into the ecosystem again,” she told him seriously.Then she adjusted something on her Kimoyo beads, and several of the nanites moved closer to the nightmarish figures, making quick strikes to take samples.

Suddenly, the figures she’d sampled dissolved in a spray of ash, collapsing in on themselves until they were nothing but a pile of fine dust, and even that collapsed and disappeared in a moment.

“Like spores,” Shuri whispered, watching the readouts from the nanite drones.“I’ll need to filter for the mutagen.I can’t tell in the samples right now -“

“Fuck,” Steve swore, stepping back as though he expected to get caught in the backwash of disintegrated Hydra followers.“What about -“

“Wait,” Shuri commanded, quickly reallocated drones toward another part of the chamber, right up against the Wakandan border.

They all took a step back at the image that started to form in the 3D model.

The figure was tall, taller than Steve or even M’Baku.Broad, its powerful arms outstretched, armored fists held aloft as though they were pounding on the invisible wall that was the barrier holding back the hordes of Hydra.As the image resolved, they could see articulated plates in the arms, deep groves between each one, the edges sharp like they were weapons in their own rights.Enormous wings sprouted from the thing’s back, extended as though the creature were about to lift off in the next breath.The head was flung back, fanged mouth open in a silent snarl, thick horns curling up and back from the broad, plated forehead, surrounded by long, flowing hair.

Steve stepped around the simulacrum, dread forming cold and insistent in the pit of his stomach.He stopped right in front of the creature, and stared up into the face of madness.

Into the face of his soulmate, monstrously altered, but recognizable to the man who’d loved him for millennia.

“Bucky,” he breathed, then closed his eyes against the horror.

&&&

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blame this chapter on me discovering the Secret Warriors on Disney+, and remembering that terrigen is a thing ... a thing I really needed to make this chapter work. :)


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which mysteries deepen, and old friends reconnect in unexpected ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told my Patreon patrons that I struggled with this next section, because I didn’t want to take the path the boys were demanding. But they always win. Finally, the pieces fell into place, and I’m quite happy now where it’s going. Nearly everyone is in place for the collaboration necessary to prevent Wakanda becoming a Kree foothold.

“Steve,” Sam said, an undercurrent of both warning and begging in his tone.

“It’s okay, Sam. I’m not going to do anything to endanger Wakanda,” Steve practically spat back as he worried a groove into the smooth vibranium laced marble floor with his incessant pacing.

“Ever?Or until you can’t hold back any longer?”

“Sam,” T’Challa admonished softly from where he sat.They were in Steve’s apartments at the palace, away from where Shuri worked the problem of the underground chambers full of terrigen-mutated Hydra foot soldiers.And Bucky.And rather than place him under guard by the Dora Milaje, Steve was kept company by the crowned prince and his consort.Friendly guards, but guards just the same.

For now, he was contained.He worried and fretted, but he respected the civil authority of T’Challa, the technological authority of Shuri.And the moral authority of Sam Wilson.Ultimately, they all knew that it was his respect of their authority that kept him there.None of them had the strength to hold him back if his will was to leave.The entire kingdom couldn’t contain him if his will was to leave.

So they didn’t acknowledge the power imbalance.Steve was a civilized man.He’d sworn to protect Wakanda millennia ago.He wouldn’t break that promise.

But how does such a promise bear up against the needs of his soulmate, his other half?None of them wanted to find out.

But Sam felt they needed to be realistic about the possibility.

“Shuri’ll figure it out,” Sam said, but his voice did not carry absolute conviction.

Steve raised his head at that, looked directly into the warm, dark eyes of his friend.“And if she doesn’t?”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“I can’t allow her to seal him down there.”

“Give her time.The models so far are showing there’s enough super-charged terrigen left in those corpses, or whatever they are, to infect Wakanda.To alter the environment, the wildlife, the people.Odds are the same thing would happen to the peoples of Wakanda as what happened to those soldiers.What happened to Bucky.”

“I have to get him out of there first.Before she seals it all up.I can’t lose him again, not when I’ve finally found him.”

“Steve -“

“I’ll go down there myself to retrieve him if I have to.”

“And expose yourself in the process.Maybe even become like him.”

“No, that wouldn’t happen.”

“How can you know that?”

“I’m immune.”

“You can’t know that.”

“I do.Terrigen only changes you once.”

“Yeah, so you don’t know what it’s gonna do to you -“

“It’s already done it.I wasn’t always like this,” Steve blurted, then shut his mouth with a snap.

“What’s that mean?” Sam asked warily. 

T’Challa rose slowly from his seat, head tilted curiously as he asked, “What were you like?”

“I ... I was smaller.Not ... not like this,” he waved his hand impatiently up and down his impressive, god-like physique.

“Oh, tell me you were a twink,” Sam answered, chuckling.“Please tell me there are pictures.”

Steve looked at him with a confused look that gradually morphed to a smile.“There are ... images.Not photographs.But images.”

“That predate photography.Got it.If you’re exposed again, it won’t affect you.”

“It won’t,” Steve agreed.

“You must see Shuri, then,” T’Challa concluded.

“She’s banned me from her lab.”

“As an irritating observer, yes.But as a source of valuable data?No.Come,” T’Challa commanded, heading for the door.

With a shrug and a glance at Sam, Steve did as his prince ordered.

&&&

Shuri was angry and frustrated.Every model she ran ended up the same way - terrigen released into the ecosphere with catastrophic consequences.If released inside the force bubble, the damage could be contained within the realm of Wakanda.It would no longer be the Wakanda she knew, and there was little guarantee life inside the bubble would be worth living.But if even one tiny sample of the radioactive terrigen escaped, the mutagen would rapidly expand over the entire planet.The Earth would become a new Kree world.

She almost welcomed the distraction of Steve’s return to her kingdom, and even more so when Steve explained that he’d been altered by terrigen. Not the supercharged version that existed in the chambers around Wakanda, but terrigen nonetheless.

“Samples, I need samples!” she demanded, glaring at Steve.

And Steve stared right back.“Samples of what?” he asked warily.

“Your blood, Guardian!Your tissue. If you’ve been successfully terrigen-formed without horrific mutation, you just might hold the key to mitigating this mutagen.You might hold the key to saving the White Wolf,” she added, eyebrow raised, her voice a seductive, suggestive purr. She could taste the victory, it was so close.The Guardian would risk everything to recover the White Wolf. Even in his grotesque, mutated form. She knew it.She’d have his secrets at last.

But he closed his eyes, drew in a sharp breath through his nose, and shook his head.“I can’t, Princess.You know that.”

“Steve,” Sam protested.“Now’s not the time to -“

“Sam,” T’Challa admonished softly.Shuri could see him put out his hand to stay his husband as Shuri stared into the anguished face of the Guardian.

“I can’t,” he said again, his voice odd.Pained.

Shuri realized with a start that Steve wanted to cooperate, but something held him back, actually prevented him from doing what he must to save his mate.

“Without your blood, I cannot engineer a cure -“

“With my blood, you still would not be able to, Princess.My blood is not -“

“Of this Earth,” she whispered, understanding beginning to dawn.“But surely it could be used to save the White Wolf -“

“Perhaps.But that knowledge of our kind is not something I can share.Not with you, not with any ... not with any human.”

“Then we are lost,” she said simply.“Nothing I have tried turns back the tide if even a single molecule of the stuff breaks free.And the chambers are outside the borders of Wakanda - we cannot control what our neighbors choose to do under their own lands.Catastrophic contagion is all too possible -“

“Entomb it,” T’Challa said then.

“Entomb?But the White Wolf -“

Steve gasped, his eyes wild as he jerked his attention from T’Challa to Shuri.“Is there a way to have the nanites form a chamber?Around Bucky.Seal him off from the environment around him?”

“Yes.The nanites could easily form an impenetrable shell around him.But then what?Again, if even a molecule of the terrigen compound is released into our environment - a nanite chamber would still have to move through contaminated space.”

Steve looked ashen, defeated.Never in her short life had Shuri imagined such pain radiating off one individual.

“I’m sorry.I can’t,” he repeated.“I thought you wanted me here for information, not samples of my blood.I just can’t.”

“All right.You said the Hydrans had been massing to the north, that the terrigen was laced with a radioactive ore from there.But I can find nothing in this version of terrigen that matches any element on the periodic table.”

Steve slowly came back to himself then, staring at Shuri in disbelief.“No, it was a Terran isotope, earthly -“

“It is not.The wavelength is definitely not of this world.Of this universe.”

Steve’s expression shuttered then, as though he drew armor over his heart and mind, his expression that of a statue not unlike his White Wolf.

“I’m sorry.I need to go.I need ... I need to go,” he repeated, almost desperately, as he bolted from the lab.

“But Guardian!I have many questions -“ Shuri called, then balled her fists and pounded them against her thighs as she growled her frustration.“I have more questions than answers!” she told Sam and T’Challa.

“I’ll talk to him -“ Sam started to say, only to have T’Challa extend his hand and rest it on Sam’s chest.

“No.The Guardian needs time.I trust that he will do what is needed for Wakanda, for the world.In the meantime, sister, the box?Think outside it.”

“I’m going to talk with Baba.See if he will talk some sense into the Guardian,” she grumbled, stalking away.

&&&

“You gonna go after her?” Sam asked a beat after the door had hissed shut behind her.

“Why?”

“She’s gonna play all Daddy’s girl and get your father to do something about Steve.”

“She will try.The King will not give in so easily.Not on something like this.And he may be able to share some wisdom with her that we’re not seeing.”

“You sure about that?”

“I am sure I will give my King the opportunity.She is correct, we have more questions than we have answers.I don’t think we have any choice but to seal the chambers.The only real question is what to do about the White Wolf.If we imprison him for eternity without trying to recover him safely, I don’t doubt that the Guardian would still honor his oath to Wakanda.But the cost to him may be more than any should expect him to pay.We owe it to him to keep trying, even if it means reaching outside of Wakanda’s borders.”

“You mean revealing ourselves to the world?”

“Potentially.In a limited fashion.There are other great minds in the world - perhaps it is time we connected to them.”

“I ... wow.Okay. But about Steve -“

“Let him work through this on his own.At least until Shuri calms down.” T’Challa manipulated a bead, and smiled. “I’ve called off the Dora.I trust that he will not do anything to harm us.”

“I do, too, T.But I’m worried.I spend almost every waking hour with the dude when we’re outside, and I’ve never seen him like this -“

“He’s never been so close to his soulmate, and yet so incredibly far.I think we can ... cut him some slack?Is that the phrase?”

“You know it is.Don’t think you can pull that uneducated native shit with me, Dr. T’Challa.You got enough degrees to give that Stark guy a run for his money.”

“And he may well be someone we need to call in to assist.Do you have him on speed dial?”

“No, but I think Steve does.Dude knew Stark’s dad Howard during World War II - you know, back when he was a British war hero?He likes to check up on the kids of people he’s known.Damn, if you’re gonna invite him in, you better have the Border Tribe increase production on that bush mango liquor.”

“From what I hear of him, perhaps we should plan to trade the liquor to the Jabari to share their high-test coffee beans.”

The pair of them discussed possible preparations for an influx of scientific minds as they exited Shuri’s lab. 

&&&

Back in his apartment, Steve pressed his back against the cool wall and tried to calm his racing heart.Then he pulled out his phone, and stared at it a moment before sighing deeply. 

SGR>I found him

TOS>Alive?

SGR>Unknown.Below ground, perimeter of Wakanda. Surrounded by terrigenic Hydra corpses.Need your help to recover.

TOS>Corpses - all dead?And you need just me?

SGR>Everything.

TOS>Everything? Even the cube?

SGR>Especially the cube.Secured.

TOS>Naturally.How soon?

SGR>Now.

TOS>Commercial air now, or BF now?

SGR>BF now.

TOS>We’ll be there within the hour.Will need to organize first.Stay calm, old friend.I pray the tidings be glad.Will see you shortly.

Steve sent off a quick thank you and watched the screen for anymore floating dots, but it remained blank, so he thumbed it off and pushed off from the wall.

Now he just had to beg forgiveness for inviting alien - literally - visitors inside Wakanda.But after Shuri’s revelation about the radiation used to spike the terrigen, Steve felt he had no choice.

And his old friends just might have some tricks up their ancient sleeves that could help him recover Bucky without infecting the country.Or the planet.

He had to hope.That’s all he had left now.

&&&

“Baba, the Guardian is being mean to me.”

T’Chaka glanced at his younger child, and raised a dubious eyebrow.“How so?” he prodded gently, bracing for a torrent of words or an explosion of limbs as his daughter launched into arguments beyond his understanding.Both children had inherited their extraordinary minds from their mother’s side of the family - a worthy match indeed.

But Shuri surprised him, as she often did.Instead of many many words, or arms and legs gyrating in an impossible dance, she crawled into his lap and laid her head against his shoulder.

“He won’t give me any blood,” she lamented quietly.

T’Chaka had learned to, as they say in the west, roll with it when it came to his daughter’s whims and fascinations.By some miracle, he’d donated DNA to what may be the brightest mind of her generation, of the world.Her energy rarely flagged, and her mind was never idle.Her curiosity was never fully satisfied.And sometimes, that curiosity led her down paths that were better not tread.Like taking the blood of the Guardian.

“That is correct,” T’Chaka said simply.

She jerked up at that, glaring down at him from where she now perched on his legs.“But I need it!”

“But the Pact is clear.The White Guardian will watch over and protect Wakanda to his last breath.In exchange, Wakanda will allow him citizenship and resources, but never invade his privacy - that includes his person, his blood.”

“But it’s the only way I can protect Wakanda,” Shuri insisted, heaving a mournful sigh as she plopped herself back against her father’s chest.

“The only way, or the easy way?” he prompted, a chuckle lacing his words.

“The most sensible way,” she pouted.

“That’s not what I asked,” he said then, shifting so she had to turn and look at him.“Is it the only way?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted grudgingly.“But it is the most sensible way!”

“Still, a promise is a promise.”

“Even if by keeping the promise, Wakandans could die?”

T’Chaka was quiet for a moment, and he could feel the growing tension in his daughter’s body presaging a claim of victory.Equally, he felt her deflate when he answered, “Even then.For a promise that is only kept when convenient is not a promise at all.”

“But -“

“Which is why I ask, is it the only way?Is there another way to achieve the result?”

“I don’t know, I tell you.I don’t know!”

“Then tell me the problem,” he urged her gently, settling in to wrap his arms around his precious child, enjoying the ability to cuddle her, a boon he knew she’d soon withdraw as she grew into the fine woman - and future queen - he knew her to be.

So she did, with much gesticulating and editorialization.His heart went out to the Guardian, separated from his other half for so long, only to learn he’d been taken, transformed, by the very forces they’d fought so hard to destroy.And to learn he was so close, and yet so dangerously far ...

It was a dilemma of royal dimensions.The kind of dilemma either of his children might one day face as monarchs.

“What would you do, Baba?”

“I would turn to the greatest scientific mind in Wakanda, and charge her to find a novel way to transport the White Wolf safety from that chamber, to a secure location where the contagion could not escape until it is completely purged or neutralized.”

“Transport?You make it sound so easy!I’ll have the goat herders pull up with one of their wagons, shall I?They can transport the White Wolf to the lakeside and invite them into their community.Transport!”

And then she froze.

“Transport,” she repeated softly.

“Daughter?”

“A project I toyed with when I was young.After I watched that silly American TV show,” she told him, waggling her hand.

“There are many silly American TV shows.”

“Yes, but this one had pretty effects.I almost had it working, too.I only lacked a proper energy source.But ... I have long since developed something that would work very nicely.Yes.Yes!” she added with more enthusiasm.“I am the greatest scientific mind in Wakanda.And I have found a novel way to ‘transport’ the White Wolf!Thank you, Baba!” she exclaimed as she threw her arms around his neck and smacked a loud, wet kiss on his weathered cheek. 

He patted her arm affectionately and chuckled.“Will you come back and explain it to me?”

“No.I will call you when it’s ready, and you can watch with us.It is going to be a-maz-ing!”

&&&

“Do you know what she’s doing?” Sam asked dubiously as he and T’Challa watched from a safe, out of the way alcove in Shuri’s main lab.

“She said something about ‘making it so,’ and then started pulling up old inventory records.I believe she has come up with an alternative to bleeding our Guardian dry.”

“Good to know.She wasn’t ever going to win that one.”

“You and I know it.But Shuri has rarely come up against a problem she didn’t somehow overcome.She approaches everything with the surety of success.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Sam asked, genuinely curious.

“Yes.It is a good thing until it becomes a bad thing.I understand she attempted to convince the King to command the Guardian to give up his blood and tissue.”

“Oh?”

“He refused.But he said he said something that apparently inspired her to try something else.I imagine it’s only a matter of time before she has something to show us.What do you think?Dinner in town?”

“Wanna invite Steve along?”

“I do not.I wish to dine with the most handsome man in all of Wakanda, and show him off to our people.”

“Oh, well.When you put it like that ...”

“So you don’t mind if I have dinner with M’Baku?”

“My ass.”

“Of course.Shall we?”

“Remind me why I married you?”

“Oh, I will.You may count on that, my love.Several times, if you are a very good boy.”

&&&

Shuri was practically vibrating with glee as the team brought in the two large vacuum-sealed chambers.Both had been hand blown by artisans of the Jabari, and smuggled down the mountain to Birnin Zana to satisfy the precocious curiosity of the eight-year-old she’d once been.M’Baku liked to tease her about her early career as a smuggler and patron of the Jabari arts, something that had grown up between them as though they’d been squabbling siblings from the start.That affectionate relationship had gone a long way to help cement relations between the tribes of Wakanda and their mountain cousins, the Jabari.In many ways, Shuri’s need for tools and artifacts that could be supplied by Jabari artisans had allowed dialogue and rapprochement to occur between Jabari and Wakanda, after centuries of barely concealed distrust and separation.Now, the two nations were more united by trade and support, moving ever closer to a unified Wakanda-Jabari nation.

While she’d pulled her toys out of storage and organized them in her lab, Shuri had realized that M’Baku had not been part of any of the discussions of the Hydra incursion along the perimeter of the force bubble, yet might be in the path of danger should the dome fail for any reason.She made a note to pull M’Baku into the conversation, since his nation could be affected should containment fail.As for the lands beyond the dome ... that was a discussion for her father and the Tribal Council.Considering the world thought of Wakanda as backward and poor, how would their neighbors react to the chambers, or how Wakanda was even aware of them?

It was a mess.But as she worked to connect her vibranium battery to her old toys, she believed she had the building blocks to make it right.

Then the lights in her lab all went dark.

“Bast-dammit!” Shuri swore, but the lights surged back on in barely the time she took to blink.But she couldn’t risk anything longer disrupting the power to the dome.She quickly brought up a schematic of the system on her Kimoyo beads, and frowned at what appeared to be a targeted beam that lanced through the outer defenses.

And stopped in the apartments of the White Guardian.

&&&

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can you guess where this is going? I always love to read theories - sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re wrong, and sometimes they are so good I end up having to change what I planned to write!

**Author's Note:**

> Kuja kindly donated to ConPRMeditos, which is a wonderful organization that has coordinated and funded a lot of recovery efforts in Puerto Rico following Hurricanes Irma and Maria. You can donate directly at conprmeditos.org.
> 
> Please subscribe or bookmark so you’re alerted when new chapters are posted. I’m very excited to share this idea with Kuja and all of you!


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